This invention relates to squeeze rollers for use in a photosensitive material developing apparatus and more particularly to squeeze rollers for removing treating solutions from photographic paper while it is fed through a printing/developing apparatus.
A printed photosensitive material is dipped in each of the treating tanks in a printing/developing apparatus which are arranged in a row, raised out of the treating tank and sent to the next treating tank.
During its travel from one treating tank to the next, it passes between a plurality of pairs of squeeze rollers arranged over the adjacent treating tanks. The squeeze rollers serve to squeeze the paper and remove any treating solution stuck on the paper. Thus, before the paper is fed into the next tank, treating solutions are completely removed from the paper so that the solution in one tank will never mix with the solution in the next tank.
The squeeze rollers, which are essential components for a printing/developing apparatus for photosensitive materials, have one problem in that correction values printed on the base surface (back) of a photosensitive material, which indicate important data for the subsequent treating, such as finish printing and re-printing, may be transferred to the squeeze rollers.
Thus, it is .an ordinary practice to provide one of each pair of squeeze rollers which is opposite to the base surface of a photosensitive material with an annular groove to prevent the rollers from coming into contact with the correction values printed on the base surface.
Any treating solution stuck on such rollers tend to crystallize along the edges of the annular grooves. While no photosensitive material is fed between each pair of squeeze rollers, the treating solution that has crystallized on one roller with the annular groove will be transferred to the other roller, which has no annular groove and is adapted to be brought into contact with the emulsion surface of a photosensitive material, thereby leaving two annular lines of crystallized treating solution on the other roller. Such crystallized solution stuck on the other roller may cause increased irregularity in sensitization of the emulsion surface of a photosensitive material or produce scratches thereon.
Such phenomena occur because the annular grooves formed in those of the plurality of squeeze rollers that are brought into contact with the base surface of a photosensitive material are not only located at the same position with respect to the photosensitive material being fed, but they also have the same width. Thus, as shown in FIG. 5, scratches or irregularly sensitized portions are formed on an emulsion surface 21 of a photosensitive material 20 along two lines or strips 23 by the respective squeeze rollers. Since such lines or strips 23 are formed by a plurality of the rollers, they tend to stick out like a sore thumb.